A The global flood is a story that exists in over six hundred ancient cultures.

1 Sociologist/anthropologists tell us that the more often we see a legend or myth in various cultures, the greater the probability that the story is truth in history.

a As Bible believing Christians we accept the fact that a global flood did occur several thousands of years ago.

aa Genesis 6:13, 17 (NASB) 13 Then God said to Noah, "The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth.17 "Behold, I, even I am bringing the flood of water upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life, from under heaven; everything that is on the earth shall perish.

bb The flood was a historical global event of God’s judgement upon a corrupt/sinful mankind.

b Luke 17.26, Jesus tells us that there would be sign, “days of Noah”, for us aware of as we anticipate the coming Day of the Lord.

Luke 17:26 (NASB) 26 "And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man:

aa It is important therefore that we know what Noah’s world was like.

bb A world (that had existed for at least 1,600 years before the flood) that was so fractured, corrupt, depraved that God determined that the only hope for humanity was to wipe people out almost completely and start again.

2 Noah’s world had a huge population.

a People lived to be very old (Noah was 600 when the flood came and lived to be at least 950 years-old.)

aa Considering that the average life span of the ancients was 400 years old AND each year afforded the opportunity for at least one live birth per couple.

bb We can estimate that the population (using the age of the world, average life span, rule-of-thumb birthrate) of Noah’s world was around 9 billion souls.

b Ron Philips, “ . . .the greater number of people in the populace, the more accelerated the evil.”

B Noah’s world had great advances in technology and civilization.

1 Cain taught the people to settle in cities instead of living as wandering nomads.

Genesis 4:17 (NASB) 17 Cain had relations with his wife and she conceived, and gave birth to Enoch; and he built a city, and called the name of the city Enoch, after the name of his son.

a The fields of mechanics & the fine arts were introduced in an effort to overcome the curse of labor. (Work hard, play hard.)

b Just a few generations after Cain, we read about Jabal, who pioneered animal husbandry.

Genesis 4:20 (NASB) 20 Adah gave birth to Jabal; he was the father of those who dwell in tents and have livestock.

aa His brother Jubal is called the “father of all those who play the harp & flute.

Genesis 4:21 (NASB) 21 His brother's name was Jubal; he was the father of all those who play the lyre and pipe.